Ratings

Swordquest: Earthworld is a game released for the Atari 2600. It was created as the first part of a four-game adventure series for that system that would, in turn, become part of a series of game playoffs hosted by Atari where successful players would be rewarded valuable prizes (in the case of Earthworld, a talisman made of 18K solid gold with 12 diamonds and the birthstones of the 12 zodiac signs). It was followed by Fireworld and Waterworld, which were released; the final part, Airworld, was worked on but never finished or released.

Story

As told in the pack-in comic created by DC Comics, Torr and Tara are twins who are out to avenge the deaths of their parents at the hands of the evil King Tyrannus when they come across a crystal that contains the spirits of Mentorr and Mentarra, who lead the two adventurers into Earthworld to find the Sword of Ultimate Sorcery and the Talisman of Penultimate Truth. Earthworld consists of twelve rooms, each one marked after a sign of the Zodiac.

Gameplay

The player travels through various rooms, picking up and dropping off items and playing various mini-games in some rooms to access items stored in those rooms. If the correct items are placed in a room, a clue shows up, pointing the player to a page and panel in the comic book included with the game. There, the player would find a word that was hidden in that panel. The object is to find all five correct clues in the game.

Notes

In the final playoffs for this game, the talisman was awarded to Steven Bell, who had melted the gold down (except for the sword part) in order to pay for school.